Appendix 285 



or forest has a great influence on the quality and quantity 

 of ivory, just as it has an influence on the size. 



Side by side with elephants provided with tusks, which 

 are in the majority, we meet with certain anomalies, tusk- 

 less elephants. These, in my opinion, are phenomena re- 

 sulting from some caprice or other in dentition. I have 

 never seen a male without tusks, and Mr. Selous reports 

 one case only. On the other hand, I have met a fair 

 number of females which had none ; especially in southern 

 Central Africa. From the region of the lakes to the Congo, 

 these tuskless females appear to me to be rarer. They are 

 distinguished from the other elephants by greater irascibility 

 and larger size. The sourness of their temper seems to 

 rne inexplicable, unless the absence of tusks makes them 

 suffer pain, which is difficult to admit. As to their great 

 size, this must arise from the fact that native hunters fear 

 these animals owing to their viciousness, and spare them 

 because they are commercially useless. Not only is the 

 absence of tusks not hereditary, but tuskless females are 

 always, according to experienced natives, mothers of big 

 males with ivory. I have seen several examples of this, 

 and a case in point is mentioned in Chapter XIII. 



Does a broken tusk grow again ? It is generally be- 

 lieved that it does ; but that is an error. I have seen several 

 elephants with only one tusk, the other having been lost 

 either during a fight between males, or owing to a clumsy 

 rifle-shot. 



The use which elephants make of their tusks is indicated 

 by the name (defenses) which is given them in French. They 

 constitute a redoubtable weapon with which males fight 

 among themselves, indicate their superiority, or inspire fear 

 in the herd. Females use them in the same way, and it is 

 common to find elephants wounded or marked in several 

 places by the tusks of their fellows. They also use them 

 for digging up roots, for stripping bark from trees, and 

 even for resting ; in fact, they rest them against a trans- 



